ECO 1-BASIC ECOLOGY

1.Ecosystem
2. Energy Flow
3.Food Chain, Food Web, Niches
4.Pyramid Of Numbers, Biomass , Energy
5.CYCLES -Carbon Cycle ,Nitrogen Cycle,H20 water
cycle
6.Population size
7. Age pyramids
– Human populations
– Birth rate, death rate

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 Ecology
• Study Of Interactions Between
Organisms and Environment
• Consists of
1. Abiotic (nonliving)
2.Biotic (living) factors.

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 ….And the living Components In The
Environment…
• All living organisms have been divided into the 5
kingdoms.
1. Bacteria
2. Protists
3. Fungus
4. Plants
5. Animals

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Ecology is study of interactions between
• Non-living Components In The Environment…
– light
– water
– wind
– nutrients in soil
– heat
– solar radiation
– atmosphere,
– PH
– HUMIDITY..
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 DEFINITIONS
• SPECIES- a group of organisms physically behaviorally similar
and can interbreed to produce fertile offsprings
• POPULATION—a group of organisms of one species living in
the same area at the same time
• COMMUNITY-all the populations of different species in an
ecosystem
• ECOSYSTEM-a unit containing all of the organisms and their
environment (biotic and abiotic components)

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 Energy Flow From The Sun To The
Organisms
• The principal source of energy for all life on the
planet is the sun.

• All living organisms use that energy for their

activities.

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 The sun has :
1.Heat energy :
• from the sun (used by organisms such as
‘cold blooded’ animals to keep their bodies
warm)
2.Light energy :
• converted into chemical energy By plants
during photosynthesis to form food
molecules.

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 Energy Flow down a food chain
• The plants chemical energy is passed on to
an animal when the animal eats the plant.
• If that animal is eaten by another animal, the
energy is passed on again.
• In this way, the suns energy enters then flows
through biological (eco) systems.
• It is gradually utilized and lost to the
environment as it passes from one organism to
the next.

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 Non cyclical Energy Flow
From The Sun To The Organisms

• Once energy is released by organisms , it is lost and can

be replaced only by further input, directly or indirectly
from the sun.

IT IS NEVER RECYCLED!!!!!

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 FOOD CHAINS

• A food chain is a sequence of organisms

• starting with the photosynthesizing organism

(usually a green plant )
• through which energy is passed as one
organism is eaten by the next in the sequence

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 FEEDING LEVELS / TROPHIC LEVELS
/NICHES
1. PRODUCERS : AUTOTROPHS
Organisms which can photosynthesize (convert solar energy
to chemical energy)
E.g. Green Algae.
2. Consumers : heterotrophs
All organisms which rely on the energy supplied by the
producer in that chain .
E.g. Mosquito Larvae, Small Fish, Heron.
3. Decomposers:
Organisms which feed on producers and consumers.
They release enzymes to break down large molecules in dead
organic matter into smaller ones
Thus the dead organism is recycled.
E.g. Bacteria, Fungi
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 Some more terms for consumers
HERBIVORE:
Animals feeding on plants.

CARNIVORES:
Animals feeding on animals
All consumers above the level of herbivore.E.g. small
fish,heron.
OMNIVORES:
Animals feeding on both plants and animals. E.g. Humans,
Crows

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 Few more terms

Predators:
the organism hunting for his prey

Prey:
the organism being hunted by the predator

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 TROPHIC LEVELS-NICHES

1. Producers

2. HERBIVORES OR PRIMARY CONSUMERS

Consumers which feed directly on their producers .eg
mosquito larvae

3. SECONDARY CONSUMERS:Consumers which feed

directly on the herbivore. E.g. small fish.

4. TERTIARY CONSUMERS:
Consumers which feed on the secondary consumer,
e.g. heron.

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 Energy loss
o Between Trophic Levels
o Advantage Of Short Food Chain

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 Energy loss along a food chain
1. Some of the energy in producers (plants) is released by the
producer through respiration.
2. some of the energy is used by the producer, for example in
the process of cell division, growth and reproduction.
3. A lot of energy is still present when a plant dies, and is then
available to decomposers.
4. So only about 10% of a plants available energy is passed on
to herbivores which eat it.

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 Energy loss along a food chain

5. Herbivores then release the energy by respiration, and use it for

growth , movement, and as heat to maintain body temperature.
6. Much of the energy is still present in the faeces of herbivores, and
some in the nitrogenous waste. this is available to decomposers .
7. Not all herbivores are eaten so , the amount of energy available
to be passed on to carnivores is small, at about 20%.
8. This is only about 2% of the amount which originated in the
producer.

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 Why are SHORT FOOD CHAINs better ?
• The longer the food chain, the less energy available to the
carnivore at the end of the chain.
• short food chains are therefore much more energy efficient than
long ones.
• In order to supply enough energy in food to maintaining ever-
increasing world population, it must be realized that far less
energy is lost when humans eat green plants than animals.
• Because more energy is lost when crop plants are fed to animals
which are than eaten by humans.

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 FOOD WEBS

• A food web is made up of interlinked food

chains In an ecosystem

• All food chains begin with a producer .

• when organisms die, they are decomposed by

saprophytic organisms - usually bacteria and
fungi.

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 PYRAMIDS OF NUMBERS

o graphical representation of data collected

o To study interactions in an ecosystem ( to study food
chains)

o Basically 3 types of pyramids:

1. Pyramid of numbers
2. Pyramid of biomass
3. Pyramid of energy

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 Past paper Qs
5090/22/M/J/12

7 (a) Explain what is meant by the term pyramid of numbers. [4]

(b) Explain the fact that energy flow is non-cyclical. [6]
[Total: 10]

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 PYRAMIDS OF NUMBERS
o It is a graphical representation of
the number of organisms in an
ecosystem.
o The numbers of organisms are
collected .
o Each level is represented by a
rectangular box. more the number
more the width of the box.
o Usually should be broader at the
base and narrow at the top as
organisms decrease in number
down the food chain.
o e.g.
o Clover snail thrush

sparrow hawk

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 Why are the numbers of organisms decreasing along
a food web in a pyramid of numbers?
o Producers need to produce enough food – and therefore enough
energy – for their own metabolic processes.
o They must also provide enough food for the herbivores that eat
them , and leave enough surviving individuals to reproduce the
next generation.
o therefore , we would expect there to be a larger number of
producers than primary consumers (herbivores) .
o For the same reasons we would expect there to be more primary
consumers than secondary consumers, and, so on.
o However …..this can be misleading….

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 P.O.N. CAN BE ….. misleading …..

o representation of feeding relationships can be misleading:

o one large plant may sustain a large number of smaller
carnivores. if this is the case, we see a top heavy pyramid.

o So the solution is: ?

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 The solution is :
PYRAMIDS OF BIOMASS
 A pyramid of biomass is a pyramid constructed using
the dry mass of organisms at each trophic level in a food
chain (or food web).
Biomass is the total dry mass of a population, i.e. the
theoretical mass of chemicals other than water in the
organisms under consideration.

it produces pyramids of a more standard shape

can be constructed by collecting data from population
estimates in any particular habitat.

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 PYRAMID OF ENERGY
A pyramid of energy is the most reliable
of all the representations of the
interactions between the organisms in a
food web.
It shows how much energy is passed from one
trophic level to the next , within the
organisms in a food web, over a period of
time.

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 PYRAMID OF ENERGY
 It thus allows for the growth of producers
over that period and thus can show
productivity (how much organic material is
made) and how much energy is passed on
during that period, to the herbivores.
 Its shape is that of a standard pyramid (like
the pyramid of biomass)
 but …..

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 PYRAMID OF ENERGY- ISSUES are :

 The info necessary to construct a P.O.E. is

difficult to obtain.
 since it requires knowing :
1. How much all of the different food stuffs are
manufactured by the producer ?
2. How much they contain ?
3. How much of each food stuff is passed on to
each member of the food web ?

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